468 THE GIANT'S STAIRS, 



followed him, and when they had made fast the boat, they proceeded 

 to ascend the Giant's Stairs, which it must be confessed they did, 

 with a huge proportion of circumspection. At length they gained 

 the top. They now paused to breathe, and looked at each other with 

 the air of triumph supposed to be experienced by adventurous ex- 

 plorers when they venture into the heart of a savage country. They 

 then proceeded cautiously down the other side of the rock, and as 

 they were anxiously pressing forward they thought they heard voices. 

 " Hist !" (says Paddeen) " tread on tip-toe." "On what," said his 

 companions. " I mane go on your hands and knees," rejoined the 

 other. 



They all then crept close together, scarcely daring to breathe, and 

 Paddeen, who was determined to be foremost, crept on a little way 

 in advance, and still declared he heard a noise. Sometimes he 

 thought it resembled distant thunder, which he surmised could be 

 nothing else than the giant's bralhing. His other two companions 

 proposed to raise a whilliloo, but this vocal display Paddeen would 

 not allow so on they went. As they proceeded the noise increased, 

 and the ground became wet. This singular discovery our travellers 

 were enabled to make from the circumstance of their being attired 

 in the every-day dress of the poor people of Ireland, that is, without 

 gloves on their feet. They, like other travellers, immediately set 

 about accounting for every phenomenon they met with, and this they 

 made out entirely to their satisfaction, as they one and all declared 

 this " mountain dew" to be a sure token that they were on a right 

 scent, as wherever that was a spirit was to be found. 



Just as they had drawn this conclusion they felt the ground tremble 

 slightly beneath them, and what appeared on one side of them to be 

 a slanting piece of the rock, gradually opened, and finally vanished 

 altogether, leaving a vacant and dark chasm. The party gazed at 

 each other with mute amazement. At length they took courage and 

 resolved to explore the dismal entrance. They proceeded altogether, 

 and looking in they beheld a flight of steps just wide enough to 

 admit the descent of a broad-built Munster man. They were in doubt 

 what course to pursue. They soon however determined on descending, 

 but then a question arose among them as to who should go first, 

 when in the midst of their cogitations a voice in the purest Milesian 

 dialect saluted them from below, adapting the following polite invi- 

 tation to a real wild Irish melody ; it ran thus : 



" Down, down, Paddeen Hoorigan, 



Bring with you two, 



Tim Dwyer, Dick Flannigan." 



"That's me, and that's you, and that's him, and by de Cove of Cork 

 it's all of us," (says Paddeen). " Now I'm the broth of a boy that 

 will go first, and you two spalpeens shall go next, and then we'll go 

 altogether, and I'll just show you the way." Paddeen then put his 

 right foot on the ladder (for such the steps really were), he next 

 made a sign to his two companions to follow him, which they did 

 with great gravity, and when they had all three descended to the 

 bottom, they heard the rock close in above them with a slight noise. 



